1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for the warming of post-anesthetic surgery patients to reduce or stop their shivering during initial post-operative recovery when the patients are still under the influence of the anesthesia administered prior to and during the operation.
It has been noted by hospital personnel that one frequent side effect of anesthesia in surgical patients is an uncontrollable shivering by these patients as the effects of the anesthesia are wearing off, and the patient's body attempts to warm itself back to a normal temperature to counteract the reduction of body temperature which was caused by the anesthesia during the operation. 2. Description of the Prior Art
Early attempts to warm such patients to reduce or stop their shivering included wrapping them in blankets, but this method did more harm than good for patients with sore and tender surgical sites.
What was needed was a warming method which did not involve direct contact with the patient, one which could provide the patient with warmth without causing discomfort at the same time.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,089,033 to Fujisawa and 3,789,853 to Reinhard disclose prior art systems for the use of infrared heat energy for the warming and treating of living tissue. Both of these patents express concern for the control of their heating systems to prevent injury to the patient, and offer rather primitive solutions to the problem.
It is an object of this invention to provide an infrared heating system for post-anesthetic patients with a fail-safe control system to preclude possible patient injury.
It is another object of this invention to provide a closed-loop temperature control system to maintain patient temperature within a preselected temperature range.
It is yet another object of this invention to include a plurality of temperature sensors to measure patient temperature, such that the failure of one sensor will not cause failure of the entire heating system.
These and other objects of this invention will be better understood by reference to the detailed description of the preferred embodiment as set forth below.